Lover’s Hill – An embarrassment in the “Oasis of Opportunities

Many vacant plots in Walvis Bay have become a public dumpsite, pubic toilet and a hiding place for criminals. Several readers contacted Namib Times in recent days, stating their plights to the municipality and owners of these vacant plots fall on deaf ears. The rubbish piles up and the stench becomes unbearable.

One particular vacant plot that is becoming an embarrassment is Lovers Hill on the southern end of Kovambo Nujoma Drive. Spent braai fires, broken bottles, human faeces, empty beer cans and other litter are increasing degrading the area into an eyesore (pictured right and lower picture showing the lagoon from an aerial view).
What makes matters worse in the case of Lovers Hill is that there is not much the municipality of Walvis Bay can do to take the owner of the land, a Chinese businessman, to task to tidy up.
The land is registered into a Close Corporation going by the name Anette Properties 113. The land was donated some years ago by the Bastos Foundation into this property owning Close Corporation and then sold off to a Chinese investor for N$19 million. The Bastos Foundation purchased the land originally for N$350 000 to set up an eco-hotel school.
The Anti-Corruption Commission of Namibia (ACC) recommended to Council that Mr José Luis Bastos of the Bastos Foundation and a senior municipal official Mr Agostino Victor be probed for this deal, as the original sales agreement between the municipality of Walvis Bay and the Bastos Foundation never made provision for the land to be alienated undeveloped. It was later found that the municipality of Walvis Bay, back then under leadership of the town clerk Mr. Gus Katiti, slipped up to have such special conditions registered against the title deed.
“The once beautiful Lover’s Hill where one could enjoy the sunset is now a filthy eyesore in town. Lover’s Hill has no garbage bins. Bottles and rubbish are all over the place”, a disgruntled resident told the Namib Times. Adding: Walvis Bay’s motto is “the Oasis of Opportunities”, but what type of opportunities would we attract if our premises look like this?
“It has become the attraction for drunkards and troublemakers. The remoteness and the thick bushes makes it the idea hideout for criminals or those who engage themselves in the excesses of the flesh they wish to conceal from their wives, husbands, their families, friends and colleagues”, said another.
“It is not safe for my children to go for walks or ride their bikes there like in the past.” Another fed-up reader told the Namib Times.
People regularly exercising along the lagoon don’t walk along the last part of the walkway concealed by the trees and bushes in fear of being ambushed.